I won’t lie, it took a *lot* of work to get to this point, but I’m happy to report that from today I’m on parental leave until November with my 9-month-old son while my wife returns to work. Turns out this is highly uncommon for male staff at my institution! 1/n

Fortunately, I had the support of @MathsUOA and @ecms_uofa, as well as my colleagues. But there were still a lot of challenges that needed to be handled administratively. A surprising number. 2/n

It’s important for dads to take parental leave, not just for themselves, but if we’re going to achieve our workplace gender equality goals — it will require gender equality *outside* of the workplace as well. 3/n

Men still disproportionately don’t take parental leave, even when it’s easily accessible. @annabelcrabb’s Quarterly Essay “Men at Work” is an eye-opener: https://www.quarterlyessay.com.au/essay/2019/09/men-at-work 4/n

If dads or dads-to-be at @UniofAdelaide want to hear about my experience to this point, I’d be happy to discuss! My DMs are open. 5/5